From: "Brandon Martin" <lists.nanog@monmotha.net>
To: nanog@nanog.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2023 9:27:58 AM
Subject: Re: Outside plant - prewire customer demarc preference
On 11/27/23 18:52, owen--- via NANOG wrote:
> Why would 1” be significantly harder to get than 3/4”? Both in EMT and PVC, it’s readily available to the best of my knowledge.
Most residential electrical contractors are going to use rated ENT since
it's what they can easily get at a normal supply house or even home
center. This is the stuff made popular by Carlon in their trademark
blue that makes people call it "smurf tube". It's readily available in
1/2" and 3/4" everywhere from home centers to basically any supply
house. 1" is less common - most home centers don't have it, and since
it isn't normally needed in residential nor is ENT basically ever used
in commercial, neither do a lot of strictly electrical supply houses.
You can of course get corrugated communication duct in that size, often
with mule tape pre-installed as a bonus, but a lot of electrical supply
houses that deal only in "electrical" and not "communications" don't
have that and will send folks to a "low voltage communication supplier"
or have to special order it. A lot of electrical contractors,
especially residential, would rather not bother with a separate supply
run, and having to wait is a pain if it wasn't planned early on and also
often means you're paying freight separately.
Even then, most of the folks going to a communications supplier are
going to reach straight for 1.25" or larger in commercial since you
don't have to worry about drilling studs. As I recall, my local
communication cable house didn't even have 1" in stock, but they did
have 1.25" in stock, and their price was basically the same as the 1" as
a result.
So it's not that it doesn't exist or anything, it's just that, at least
as far as I've seen, there's not a ton of demand for it, so local stock
is thin.
All that said, I just checked Home Depot, and they are showing some
stock on 1" ENT at my local store, so maybe that's changing. Used to be
they only stocked 3/4" and 1/2". They still only have 25ft hanks of the
1" stuff (you can get 1/2" and 3/4" in 25 or 100-200ft), but at least
they have it now. It is still about 4x the price of 3/4" per unit
length, though.
--
Brandon Martin
To: nanog@nanog.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2023 9:27:58 AM
Subject: Re: Outside plant - prewire customer demarc preference
On 11/27/23 18:52, owen--- via NANOG wrote:
> Why would 1” be significantly harder to get than 3/4”? Both in EMT and PVC, it’s readily available to the best of my knowledge.
Most residential electrical contractors are going to use rated ENT since
it's what they can easily get at a normal supply house or even home
center. This is the stuff made popular by Carlon in their trademark
blue that makes people call it "smurf tube". It's readily available in
1/2" and 3/4" everywhere from home centers to basically any supply
house. 1" is less common - most home centers don't have it, and since
it isn't normally needed in residential nor is ENT basically ever used
in commercial, neither do a lot of strictly electrical supply houses.
You can of course get corrugated communication duct in that size, often
with mule tape pre-installed as a bonus, but a lot of electrical supply
houses that deal only in "electrical" and not "communications" don't
have that and will send folks to a "low voltage communication supplier"
or have to special order it. A lot of electrical contractors,
especially residential, would rather not bother with a separate supply
run, and having to wait is a pain if it wasn't planned early on and also
often means you're paying freight separately.
Even then, most of the folks going to a communications supplier are
going to reach straight for 1.25" or larger in commercial since you
don't have to worry about drilling studs. As I recall, my local
communication cable house didn't even have 1" in stock, but they did
have 1.25" in stock, and their price was basically the same as the 1" as
a result.
So it's not that it doesn't exist or anything, it's just that, at least
as far as I've seen, there's not a ton of demand for it, so local stock
is thin.
All that said, I just checked Home Depot, and they are showing some
stock on 1" ENT at my local store, so maybe that's changing. Used to be
they only stocked 3/4" and 1/2". They still only have 25ft hanks of the
1" stuff (you can get 1/2" and 3/4" in 25 or 100-200ft), but at least
they have it now. It is still about 4x the price of 3/4" per unit
length, though.
--
Brandon Martin